Florida liability estimated at $1.9B in jobless fraud

TALLAHASSEE -- A former employee of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity who uncovered "systemic" fraud within the agency has won a whistleblower lawsuit against the state, her attorney said Monday.

The whistleblower, 30-year state employee Dianne Parcell, discovered 97 instances in which the agency had inappropriately reported Floridians to collection agencies for alleged unemployment overpayments. Parcell reported the findings to her supervisors, but was told to drop her investigation, she said.

Parcell submitted a whistleblower letter in August 2012, she said. She was placed on administrative leave the following day and later fired.

A subsequent investigation revealed as many as 19,000 Floridians had been wrongly reported to collections agencies, attorney Keisha Rice said.